Daily Archives: December 13, 2011

LifeSiteNews.com: A major wing of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA) is calling on the union to ensure teachers at Catholic schools who are in homosexual relationships are eligible for hiring and promotion despite their dissent to the Church’s prohibition of homosexual relations.

Baptist Press: Girl Scouts USA’s recent revelation that its local chapters sometimes induct boys who try to live as girls, considered transgendered, is already having repercussions in Louisiana, where three troops at a Christian school have disbanded in disappointment.

Baptist Press: Recent actions by the U.S. Air Force Academy could appear as if commanders are on a mission to rid the institution of Christian influence, but a nearby pastor says the actions are the result of intense pressure from one man.

Jordan Lorence at Baptist Press: Churches meeting in public schools should not be apprehensive because of the recent action of the Supreme Court not to review a federal appeals court decision upholding New York City’s ban on private worship services in the public schools.

CNSnews.com: Exactly two months before the Judiciary Committee Republicans asked Kagan these questions, however, her top deputy, Neal Katyal, had written her a memo informing her that she had “substantially participated” in Golden Gate Restaurant Association v. San Francisco—a case that Kagan’s own office tied to Obamacare.

Washington Times: Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter said the Republican governors of the Midwestern states who back the stalled Keystone XL oil pipeline should bypass the federal government altogether and make the agreements necessary to get the $7 billion project up and running.

Telegraph Blogs: Last Friday, according to publicity material (above) and its Facebook page, the mosque was due to host that conspicuous moderate, Sheikh Saad al-Beraik, who has reportedly stated: “Muslim brothers in Palestine, do not have any mercy neither compassion on the Jews, their blood, their money, their flesh. Their women are yours to take, legitimately. God made them yours. Why don’t you enslave their women? Why don’t you wage jihad? Why don’t you pillage them?”

The Government, in 40 pages of legal arguments, said the UK was “entitled to conclude” that “other than in limited prescribed circumstances, religious belief does not justify discriminating on grounds of sexual orientation”.

Lyle Denniston at Huffington Post: Hard to believe, but the controversies that followed those decisions may be more than matched in the new year, as the Supreme Court works its way toward decisions on three major constitutional controversies, from which political fallout is absolutely predictable.

ADF Chief Counsel Benjamin Bull at Townhall : On Dec. 6, the White House released a memorandum instructing the heads of U.S. executive departments and agencies abroad to join in the “struggle to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons” around the world . . . Yet while he’s doing his best to appeal to that group, Christians around the world continue to be persecuted—to be hunted like animals, then tortured and killed when captured—yet we are still awaiting a serious White House memorandum on their behalf.

Des Moines Register: “(Gingrich) is tremendous in debates,” said Brad Sherman, an evangelical Christian minister with Solid Rock Christian Church in Coralville. “Part of me wants to say I’d love to see him debate Obama because I think he would chew him up. But I have to live by principle – and Michele Bachmann has proved it.”

NY Daily News: Harry Pangemanan, 41, has been told to report to immigration officials, with plane tickets in hand, three days before Christmas. He’s hoping for a reprieve. Indonesian Christians urged the feds to get into the holiday spirit and spare them from deportation — by singing “Silent Night” and “Joy to the World” in front of Manhattan’s federal building.

News from The Associated Press: The last of five judges has been elected to the International Court of Justice, more than a month after the Security Council and the General Assembly failed to agree on a nominee.

Christian Legal Fellowship: Last Thursday, the Government of Canada initiative to require mandatory reporting of internet child pornography by internet service providers came into force. Bill C-22 was an EFC-supported measure which received Royal Assent in March. Today, as a result, suppliers of internet services, electronic mail services and social networking sites operating in Canada are required to report any tips or concerns about the presence of child pornography on their service to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.

Findlaw: If Congress forces the issue, it would undoubtedly lead to what Tom Goldstein calls a “constitutional showdown” between the two branches of government. Can the Justices refuse to obey the statute? Can they challenge its enforcement? How do they handle appeals?

The Christian Legal Fellowship (CLF) will present its written and oral arguments on December 14, 2011 in the Carter euthanasia and physician assisted suicide case before the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

Minnesota Public Radio News (includes audio): People in the Anoka-Hennepin School District who have spent months divided over a so-called neutrality policy on sexual orientation now appear united in opposition to a new policy being proposed to replace it.

NYTimes.com: senior European official said on Tuesday that Britain’s demands for measures to protect its financial services industry at last week’s summit meeting were impossible to meet and directly responsible for the collapse of e a Europe-wide agreement meant to help save the euro.

LaTimes.com: A Navy linguist discharged under the now-repealed policy banning gays from serving openly has been reinstated and will report soon to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, his attorneys announced.

Washington Times: Gingrich tough on women, gays in military
“Republican presidential front-runner Newt Gingrich is siding with social conservatives on how the U.S. armed forces should treat gays and women, according to a survey released Monday . . . Mr. Gingrich . . . told the Military Culture Coalition he would have voted against allowing open homosexuals in the military and, as president, would favor an extensive review for repeal of the gay ban known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.” The former House speaker also does not favor women in direct ground combat units.”

JSOnline: Women could not receive drugs that induce abortions unless a doctor gives them a physical exam and is in the same room when they receive the drugs, under a bill before a Senate committee Tuesday.

The Globe and Mail: Jean Chrétien is warning Liberals that gun control and the Kyoto accord are dead because of Stephen Harper’s Tories, darkly noting that same-sex marriage and abortion rights could be next on the Conservative government’s chopping block. He even raises the return of the death penalty as a possibility.

Local churches have traditionally claimed 14 of the 21 Palisades Park display spaces to illustrate the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. But atheists managed to get all but three of the spaces this year because of a new city lottery system.

News from The Associated Press: Leading Democratic senators are demanding that the Obama administration explain its decision to continue restricting access to Plan B, the morning-after birth control pill, for those under 17.

The Daily Caller: The State Department began a three-day, closed-door meeting Monday to talk about U.S. free speech rules with representatives from numerous Islamic governments that have lobbied for 12 years to end U.S. citizens’ ability to speak freely about Islam’s history and obligations.

MN Star Tribune: Jonathan Scruggs, an attorney with the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Alliance Defense Fund, which advocates for religious freedom, argued Monday that the city stepped on the First Amendment when it threatened to arrest anyone who violates Bentleyville rules against political campaigning and preaching.

El Paso Times: Brown’s attorney, Joel Oster, said the document released by Walker on Monday is unimportant, calling it “a non-issue.” . . . But Oster, one of Brown’s attorneys, downplayed the document’s significance. “The minutes that you refer to are a non-issue,” Oster said in an email. “They were properly given to the other side pursuant to the subpoena and the court’s instructions. They don’t state that the church itself was involved. “In any event, the court already stated that it believes that the church circulated the petitions. … What the court held, however, was that First Amendment rights were at stake and it would not stop the election.”

Edward Lee Pitts at Baptist Press: Steven Aden, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, added that “the United States is far from immune to this problem.” Speaking at the Dec. 6 House committee hearing, Aden cited a 2008 study by Columbia University economists Douglas Almond and Lena Edlund that examined the sex ratio at birth among U.S.-born children of Chinese, Korean and Asian-Indian parents. They found “deviation in favor of sons” and “evidence of sex selection, most likely at the prenatal stage,” especially among second and third pregnancies if the first child was not born male.

NC Register: The Alliance Defense Fund and two local pro-bono attorneys are aiding petitioners. “We’re defending the church’s right to be fully engaged in the culture,” said ADF senior legal counsel Joel Oster. “Christians and their institutions are not second-class citizens who are banned from the democratic process.”

William Baude at the Volokh Conspiracy: A numberofcommenters have asked about the relationship between law and marriage. Some, for example, have taken issue with the statement in my paper’s abstract that “marriage is primarily a creature of state law.” So I thought it was worth explaining a little but more about the relationship between state law and marriage.

William Baude at the Volokh Conspiracy: You surely know that some states allow same-sex couples to marry, and others do not. So what happens when a couple lives in a no-same-sex-marriage state, but gets married out of state? Or lives and marries in a same-sex-marriage state, but then moves to a no-same-sex-marriage state? Well, it depends.

Religion Clause: . . . this year the Recreation District has ruled that the Menorah may not be put up, invoking a rule of the Denver Parks and Recreation Department that bars religious decorations on public property.

News from The Associated Press: Algeria’s Islamists, buoyed by election victories of their brethren across North Africa over the past two months, are looking to triumph themselves next spring in nationwide polls.

News from The Associated Press: Political support for a ban on the ritual slaughter of animals without stunning them first, as required by centuries-old Jewish and Muslim dietary traditions, has weakened as the Dutch senate debates the legislation.

News from The Associated Press: A federal judge in Brooklyn is poised to hear arguments Tuesday over whether the federal government is acting constitutionally in its decisions over the access teenage girls are given to morning-after contraceptive pills.

The Weekly Standard: ven in China they are calling it the “Great Firewall of America.” At least the Chinese are enjoying the irony of the U.S. government moving toward a legal regime that would give it carte blanche to seize and take down websites on the basis of “infringement.”

Gulflive.com: lso at Monday’s meeting at St. Martin High School, board members said they intend to pen a freedom of speech policy that will maintain students’ rights to pray, while protecting the district from potential lawsuits. Religious speech became a hot topic in the district after the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter . . .

The Red and Black: Shewmaker responded with a letter Nov. 1 saying “invocation at commencement is part of the University of Georgia’s heritage,” according to documents provided by Joiner.
“There have been no Supreme Court of the United States cases interpreting this issue,” Shewmaker wrote.

The Washington Post: For the most part, the Republican candidates for president have avoided engaging in public the contentious subjects of gay rights and same-sex marriage. But the people they meet in diners and coffee shops sometimes have other plans.

The Malakoff News: Late last week, the legal focus shifted away from removing the nativity to allowing the FFRF to place one of its banners on the courthouse lawn. The request is based on the idea of “public forum,” said FFRF Co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor.

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Star-Telegram: A group of Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Chris Turner of Grand Prairie, filed more than a dozen amendments to reduce or eliminate funding for the program, which provides “pregnancy and parenting information” to low-income women.

Time: The Republican contenders who weighed in sided with Pence, who party strategists say could still emerge as a White House contender himself. The cascade of support was a clear sign of the importance of the issue for the party’s social conservatives, who have increasingly rallied behind the cause as voters and the courts moved to legalize same-sex marriage in states around the country.

D. James Kennedy Ministries: This past weekend, the mainstream media was aflame as a result of Indiana’s “discriminatory” Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which Governor Mike Pence signed into law.